PAIL Awareness Manicure

Last year I learned that, among other various organizations, October is Pregnancy and Infant Loss awareness month. As such, we have been encouraged to paint our nails any shade of pink and blue, the colours of the PAIL ribbon, every Tuesday of the month to raise awareness. Today is October 15, and has been named a day of remembrance for all of those lost babies and children, and the pain and grief that their parents go through.

Although 1 in 4 women will lose a child or baby in their lifetime, there remains a stigma surrounding talking about their loss or feelings. As such, we are also using today's manicures to not only raise awareness surrounding the organization, but to shatter the silence surrounding the loss and grief families everywhere go through. This organization is near and dear to me as I have had many family members, and very recently a dear, dear friend, have to suffer through the loss of a baby or child. I cannot imagine the pain and suffering that people go through upon losing a pregnancy or child, and though this manicure will not change anything in the larger picture, I am hoping that my blog post will go even a tiny way to raising awareness- the same way that similar blog posts did for me last year.

So, onto the actual manicure! On my left hand I painted my thumb and index finger with the pink creme OPI- Suzi Has a Swede Tooth, and on my left thumb and index finger I went with the blue creme OPI- Can't Find My Czechbook. On my middle and pinky nails of both hands I went with the pink holo Cirque- Powwow, and then using NailVinyls zigzag vinyls I painted Sweet Heart Polish-Sirius over top to create the finished design.

On my ring finger I used the absolutely stunning WingDust-Fair Lady. I cannot wait to wear this as an entire manicure. I absolutely love this company, even more so knowing that they're not only Canadian but from Ontario as well!

I planned this all out in my head, but then after it was done I wondered if the three fingers with patterns were too busy all in a row. In hindsight I'm thinking that the glitter should have been on the pinky, but I am still super happy with the turnout. Honestly, I am just happy to have been able to participate in this amazing movement.

Crumpet's Nail Tarts 52 Week Pick n' Mix Challenge

Hello there!! Okay, so obviously I wasn't able to finish the last 31 day challenge, and I assure you it was for good reason- we got a puppy!! We had recently gotten one in July and were just so in love that we decided to get a second one. However, it obviously meant less nail art time as all that drying time really adds up when you're having to take puppies out. So I unfortunately had to bail on the challenge, which was a bummer. In fact before I painted this manicure it had been over a month since I last painted my nails, and I was starting to go a little crazy  haha.

However, I recently became a member of Crumpet's Nail Tarts group, and there is a 52 Week Challenge that I'm taking part in which I think should be doable as one mani a week isn't too much to ask. I wasn't off to a great start as I missed the first week, but this is week two so hopefully I can redeem myself!

This week's prompt was pink/three colour gradient. I decided to combine them by first painting my nails nude and then stamping with a gradient of three pinks. My nude base is my favourite OPI- Don't Pretzel My Buttons and the three pinks, from lightest to darkest, are Color Club- Miss Bliss, Cirque- Powwow and I Love Nail Polish- Molly. All three colours are stunning and super pigmented holographic polishes, which can be seen by how well they stamped. Although I initially hoped they would appear darker, looking back at the finished product they're still quite pigmented. For my thumb I used three coats of Pahlish- Lantern Waste, which I am so in love with and thought went well with the other colours in the rest of the manicure ;-)

All in all I was pretty happy with how this turned out, although my one problem was that because my nails are currently quite short, the three colour part of the gradient got a bit lost. Oh well, live and learn! Like I said on facebook, this idea looked amazing in my head and only slightly less so in execution, so I'll take it haha.

31DC2014: Day 9

Okay, I am so excited about these rainbow nails- gumball machines!! I got the idea when a friend of mine sent me a pin like this on Pinterest and suggested that I try it. I have been meaning to for some time now but I hadn't even gotten the chance, so I was wracking my brain for rainbow nails day and came across this pin and thought perfect!! There is no watermark on the pin, but it links to a blog called Polish Art Addict. I didn't look at her blog until after I had done my nails so I didn't follow her tutorial, and mine do look quite a bit different from hers, but I just wanted to make sure the inspiration was credited properly ;-)
 

I used quite a few colours, which I will list later, but the main colours of red and black are OPI- Coca-Cola Red and Cult Nails- Nevermore. My thumb is my absolute favourite and I actually debated taking the other nails off and just doing multi coloured dots to represent the gumballs but then I thought what the heck, it took some time so I'll leave it. My main mistake was not adjusting the size of the red portions on the top and bottom of the nail for the smaller nails, which meant that the actual gumball portion was smaller. But, all in all I am still super happy with the turnout!
 

The following colours are used for the gumballs:
- Orange: OPI: Can't Aforjd Not To
- Green: Essie: The More The Merrier
- Purple: China Glaze: Givers Theme
- Blue: OPI- Can't Find My Czechbook
- Yellow: OPI- I Just Can't Cope-cabana
- Red: OPI- Coca-Cola Red
 

 

 

 

Soooo, what do you think?? I don't even know if anyone is reading this, but I am so crazy excited. As I said before I am no artist, but I think these are quite nice! I will be back tomorrow for gradient day!

31DC2014: Day 8

Okay, so it's metallic nails day! This one took some thinking as I'm not a huge fan of metallic finishes on my nails. I decided to stick with the basics: gold, silver and copper. Although that was basically a given as I don't have that many metallic shades  ;-)
 

My base was my favourite silver, a England- Merlin (original) and I blobbed on my favourite gold, a England- Holy Grail (new) as well as Essie- Penny Talk. I absolutely adore the new Holy Grail, as I mentioned I am not a huge fan of metallics, but even less so of gold polishes in general, and yet I love this polish. I could wear it as an entire mani over and over again no problem. I took some saran wrap and scrunched it up a bit, and then just pressed it up and down one nail at a time into the wet blobs.
 

At first I wasn't sure about the finished product, I found the silver to be overwhelming over the other colours, but the more I looked at it the happier I was. I think my middle finger and pinky are my favourite nails. I tried to take some pictures in different lights because I found my usual shot under my OttLite was too reflective against the top coat to be able to see the pattern.

 

 

 

Tomorrow is rainbow nails day and I am so super excited about my nails! I hope you all like them too! :-)

31DC2014: Day 7

Today's prompt is black and white, so I turned to stamping for some inspiration! My original thought didn't work out, but I was good with that as I really like this finished product as well. I stamped the white with Rica- White Out and the Messy Mansion lace plate. I then went over the top with Cult Nails- Nevermore, my all time favourite black that I don't usually like to waste on stamping, and some roses from MoYou London Mother Nature Collection, the same plate from the day 4 nails, the number of which is still escaping me.

I was really happy with the turn out, especially with my decision to leave the base nude. I am still loving my gel french manicure underneath these designs, so I decided just to leave that as the base and stamp over top! I did add a coat of base coat though as I was worried that the stamp wouldn't stick to the shiny, smooth surface of the gel.

There is just something about a black and white manicure that is so classy. I'll be back tomorrow with day 8: metallic!!

31DC2014: Day 6

Okay, so today's prompt is violet. I had them done and posted on time for the challenge, but I didn't have time to get the details on the blog. I first painted my nails white with Rica- White Out, then applied three straight NailVinyls diagonally across each nail. I picked out four different colours of violet, going from darker to lighter. The darkest colour was OPI- Viking in a Vinter Vonderland, followed by OPI- Do You Have This Color in Stock-Holm,  then China Glaze- Givers Theme and finally OPI- I'm Feeling Sashy.

On one hand it looked like I wanted it to, but on the other hand I just couldn't get the lines as crisp as I had wanted them to be. I think it was because I had to dab the colours on to avoid colour leakage and therefore they went on quite thick, which meant they spread a bit when I took the vinyls off. It definitely was not my best work, but I think it's important, especially during this challenge, to push yourself and try new designs, and appreciate a job well done whether it turns out exactly as planned or not. It didn't look terrible, and I know I can be a bit of a perfectionist so I want to work on that as well.

Tomorrow's prompt is black and white, and I will be posting those in a bit seeing as how I am a day late posting this one!

31DC2014: Day 5

Okay, back again with my day 5: blue nails! I decided to do a more simplistic design with this one because the two polishes that I used were so gorgeous that they spoke for themselves. I started with a base of Cirque- Midsummer Night, which is absolutely stunning. I am so interested to see how it compares to Ethereal Lacquer Worlds Apart, as well as Maxx Factor Fantasy Fire and Nail Pattern Boldness Boop-oop-a-dupe over a similar blue like Essie Butler Please. I will definitely be trying that when this challenge is over so keep a look out for that ;-)

After being mesmerized by the polish for a while, I got my handy, ever trusted NailVinyls out and used my single chevrons to do either tips, or a small triangle at the base of the nail. I couldn't decide, so I thought why not do both! I decided on Rescue Beauty Lounge- Motorini as the second colour. The shimmer in this is gorgeous as well. At first I had thought about using black as the second colour, but then I saw Motorini just sitting there and I thought, well it's blue day after all, I might as well go for it!

At first I wasn't sure about the finished design, but once I took the pictures I liked it better, for whatever reason. I only did two coats of the Cirque, which looked great when I did it, but in the pictures I could still see the nail line of the French manicure that I have underneath. If I had noticed, I would have done a third coat because I hate that visible nail line, but it was too late to change it after!

Tomorrow is violet nails, so I will talk to you all then!